Wasn't digging the instrumental, too much, but One Good Piece of me is a winner.

Dangitall, I know they are touring everywhere in Canada around that period, but why can't management/agents/etc. get Big Wreck as main support for AB in the US tour? I would gladly would love to enjoy their set instead of the support AB is getting nowadays in the states (Like a Storm, California Breed, and Black Stone Cherry (in 2011) were the exceptions).

Co-produced by Garth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers), the sonic diversity on Grace Street is indeed stunning. Heavy grooving tracks such as lead-off single “One Good Piece Of Me” and “Digging In” rub shoulders with the atmospheric “A Speedy Recovery” and the epic seven-minute instrumental “Skybunk Marché,” while other tracks feature added touches such as Miles Davis-style muted trumpet, wine glasses, a sample of a child’s heartbeat, and a Leslie speaker guitar solo recorded on a mountainside adjacent to Richardson’s B.C. studio.

But at the core of Grace Street are live off the floor performances by founding front man Ian Thornley on guitar and keyboards, accompanied by drummer Chuck Keeping and bassist Dave McMillan. (The full Big Wreck line-up with additional guitarists Paulo Neta and Brian Doherty remains intact when the band hits the stage). For Thornley, it was imperative to maintain the human element in every aspect of the sessions, resulting in a trip he feels no previous Big Wreck album has taken a listener on before.

“Musically, I’m still searching for the stuff that turns me on and takes me somewhere,” he says. “You want to be brought to tears or have the hair on your neck stand up, and if the search for that takes you to new territory, then so be it. You have to follow. It’s like chasing a high, and Garth feels that just as much as we do.”

I'm not sure how I feel about how this album is shaping up. The musicianship is still there, but something happened to the melodies between GHOSTS and SECRETS. Listening back to "A Speedy Recovery", I'm not sure I can even recall what the chorus sounds like. Still withholding judgment until the whole thing drops, but I haven't found myself revisiting SECRETS much since it landed, and I fear the same is going to happen here. When "Ghosts" dropped, I played that single into the GROUND. I don't think I've listened to any of the singles from GRACE STREET more than two or three times.

I liked A Speedy Recovery - I'll wait till I can hear the whole album and digest it for a while, but so far based on the singles, I'm thinking this record might not tickle my fancy as much as the other post-reunion records. We shall see, I hope I'm wrong.

Hey does anyone have a current link to the myspace demos Ian released? I have been searching everywhere I can find for them and everything either turns up as a dead end or a dead link. Any help would be appreciated.